Troubleshooters: Paying twice for your luggage

If you fly commercial on a regular basis, you probably have a story or two to share about your experience. Canceled flights and lost luggage are complaints we are used to hearing, but in this new era of paying to check your bags a new problem is cropping up. You pre-pay to check your bag, then your flight gets canceled. That is the topic of tonight's Troubleshooters Report.
"I thought to save hassle at the airport, I'd pay for our baggage online," said Bruce McKinney.
Bruce booked a flight on Delta to fly from Wilmington to Fort Lauderdale for the holidays. But when he got to the Wilmington airport, things did not quite go as planned. "Delta told us the flight is cancelled, but we can put you on a US Air flight. We went over to the US Air counter and they gave us our tickets, but wanted fifteen dollars for our bags. I said, ‘Well we already paid the fifteen dollars,’ and they said, ‘Well you paid that to Delta, we don't take care of that’.”
The money for Bruce's airfare transferred from Delta to US Air, but not his baggage fee. Bruce was told that if he did not pay the fee again, he would have to leave his luggage in Wilmington. So Bruce forked over another fifteen dollars. After his trip was over, he contacted Delta about getting his baggage money refunded.
“I called Delta, and explained my situation, and they said to get your fifteen dollars back, you're going to have to write, and they gave me this long address. They said provide documentation that your flight was canceled, but we can't refund your money like this over the phone, which seemed kind of ridiculous, because it's a credit card transaction," Bruce said.
As for writing to a PO Box in Atlanta for his fifteen dollar refund, Bruce said forget it and called News Channel 3 instead. "For fifteen bucks, it's really not worth the headache, and I'm thinking, well maybe there are a few hundred people out there who feel the same way I do. That's $1,500 to $3,000 that Delta's going to be making, without any real accountability."
After News Channel 3 made at least a dozen calls to Delta on Bruce's behalf, the company agreed to cut him a check for fifteen dollars. They said what happened to Bruce is rare.
For the quickest refund, the representative recommend going to the Delta Customer Service desk once you reach your destination city, and they will process your refund. If you forget or do not have time, go to Delta’s website, and there is a way to file a claim under the Baggage section of their website.
Whether you do it in person or online, we were told you still have to wait 7 to 10 days for your refund check to arrive in the mail.

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I asked a sky captain last week at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas if the airlines knew the price of fuel had dropped when he charged me $40 for 2 pieces of luggage. He just looked up at me and grinned.
What a comfort!